critic for 'under construction' website

Nikolas · Thu 18/08/2011 08:01:00

Ok.

This IS supposed to go slightly under the radar since I'm not done, but...

Here's the website link: http://www.musica-ferrum.com/

It's a music publishing house and I want it as an early portfolio of the works I will be publishing, in order to lure more composers in. The slideshow works, there will be an mp3 player on the bottom and that's about that for now.

For the main site, it will be hugely more complicated, but for now I'm interested in the design and aesthetics of the whole site. How do you like it? How does it feel? Does it feel professional enough? Perhaps the fonts such? (in the menu), perhaps something else? The blue block on the left?

Any comments are most welcome please!

EDIT: Changes to be done:
1. The link when entering the website. The coder is working to get rid of that
2. The contact page. It's fine, but font sucks and button sucks. I'll paint one instead of the default browser button

Tabata · Fri 19/08/2011 18:52:07

A good start so far.

I would prefer one font for the â€œeditions musica ferrumâ€, instead of different though.
And (just an idea) maybe you could implement a clef for the â€œfâ€ to make it an even more musician-eye-catcher?

Nikolas · Fri 19/08/2011 22:50:16

The 'f' is already the music sign for 'forte' (loud), so it's as musical as it can get!

I do like the logo itself, personally. I'm more worried about the website (which has an html5 audio player, so you should be getting some music as well

YAY!)

Thanks for posting and for having a look!

Tabata · Fri 19/08/2011 23:21:04

Quote from: Nikolas on Fri 19/08/2011 22:50:16
The 'f' is already the music sign for 'forte' (loud), so it's as musical as it can get!

Well, I know - my thoughts about it were:
What is known also from people, who don't know something about notes
and
is it the sound or the volume, that people love the music for?

But anyway - the most important is, that you like it.

About the player â€" I have to confess, that I didn't found it at first.

It is very inconspicuous and small, so hard to find (but well working) so maybe you could add a bigger sign/icon (that even people like me can see it without searching for it)? :

Nikolas · Fri 19/08/2011 23:33:48

Quote from: Tabata on Fri 19/08/2011 23:21:04
About the player â€" I have to confess, that I didn't found it at first.
It is very inconspicuous and small, so hard to find (but well working) so maybe you could add a bigger sign/icon (that even people like me can see it without searching for it)? :

I had to pull my coder out of his chair, after working for 6-7 hours on the website today!

The thing with the mp3 player is that it's coded on html5. You see flash mp3 players do NOT work on ipad/ipod/iphones (bloody adobe vs apple) and html5 is only on IE9, FF3, Chrome, and later browsers... So there's still work to be done there (since it will be used later on on the main site).

I know it's small right now and I intend to make it a bit larger (especially the font, which I don't like atm). But I think that it's best to not let the player play immediately, because it bugs the shit out of people...

I think that a mid solution would be to have a scrolling "click to play..." where it is right now, on the bottom, which would attract attention.

And of course it will have << and >> when more tracks are added (which have to be added at both mp3 and ogg format...

html5 sucks at that and MS does not like open source format, while Google only likes that!

go figure and sorry for rumbling).

Finally, on the logo: I think I'm WAAAAAY biased, but I think that since it's a music publishing house, for contemporary classical music, chances of someone entering who is not a musician are quite slim... :-/

Again thanks for sharing your opinion!

It really helps!

Atelier · Sat 20/08/2011 18:24:53

Can I say, the logo is very nice. But as soon as I saw it I thought 'Classic FM'.

But obviously you can't copyright notation (and yep I'm no musician but it's obvious what it is). As for the site, it looks very professional.

Nikolas · Sun 21/08/2011 08:36:26

Quote from: Atelier on Sat 20/08/2011 18:24:53
Can I say, the logo is very nice. But as soon as I saw it I thought 'Classic FM'.

But obviously you can't copyright notation (and yep I'm no musician but it's obvious what it is). As for the site, it looks very professional.

You actually CAN copyright notation, but it's not called that, it's called 'trademark'. Still the "f" sign is a universal music sign which cannot be trademarked or other and obviously ferrum from fm goes VERY apart to have any real problems, at least I think... :-/

I'll have to deal about that when the time comes.

Thanks for checking the site out!

Tabata · Sun 21/08/2011 10:20:27

Aaah â€" your coder is back in his chair, placed the player to the right now and changed the look. Looks much better and (still) works well.
Get him something to eat/drink, will you

To give you a clue about what I meant, when telling you that I had to search for it (because that didn't change):
Please take a look over here. That's what my screen looks, when calling your site.
What you see seems to be the whole site, but it isn't. You need to scoll below the copywrite line (which gave me the impression that the site ends there), to find the player.
If a lot of people see it like this (I dont have special settings) maybe place it within in the frame or make a hint somewhere else, that there is a player and where to find it might do a good job without changing the style of the site?

Very good start - wishing you luck with it

Nikolas · Mon 22/08/2011 10:18:19

Thanks tabata! I really appreciate it! And I did not notice that, because on any screen and browser I had a look it was 'fine' (or didn't pay too much attention). In one case my browser had the scroll button but INSIDE the 'box' rather than where it is in your screen. What system/browser are you using?

With your (obvious in all honesty) permission I'll send your screenie to my coder for him to work out the issue. It's not too difficult to handle.

Tabata · Mon 22/08/2011 17:06:35

Well, of course you have my permission to send the screenies to your coder.
They have been done while using Vista/IE9.

selmiak · Tue 30/08/2011 19:41:35

about the logo: Use the fonts in the same size and lined up. And get rid of the underline and make it on top of the (f)errum and also lined up with the other line.
The rest looks a bit empty ...